What Matters Now: Post #5--More About Innovation

More Innovation: Innovators pay attention to four areas: unchallenged orthodoxies (challenge what people take for granted, like salesforce.com—software as a service from the cloud); underappreciated trends (notice even small harbingers of change—50% of people now bidding with TV carriers for lower costs); underleveraged competencies and assets (redeploy assets to another part of company—like Disney that produces live shows on cruises); and, unarticulated needs (listen carefully for customer needs and amaze them with innovation—think TiVo). Be sure to read the chapter, “Deconstructing Apple,” which explains Apple’s values (passion, leadership, surprise, innovation; see p. 80 for others) and how those values are innovative and customer centric. To become more innovative, companies need more pro-innovation initiatives.